Saturday, October 24, 2015

Bloody Knuckles (2015)

While it might seem unusual to the average person, I was
pretty excited to watch Bloody Knuckles.
The concept of a severed hand taking revenge for its lost body, mixed with
offensive elements and plenty of gore, sparked an interest in me. Perhaps it’s
my odd love for the massively overlooked horror comedy Idle Hands or the odd blend of horror, comedy, offensiveness, and
revenge flick that Bloody Knuckles
promised, but I was pretty stoked to be throwing in the Blu Ray when it arrived
on my doorstep. It just might be these expectations of cult horror comedy gold
that left me a bit underwhelmed overall by the film. It certainly has its
moments and for the casual horror fan it might find some of it as offensive,
but Bloody Knuckles didn’t quite
execute the outrageous promises that it seemed to have potential for. Fun,
sure, but not nearly as effective with the mix as one would hope.

Travis (Boys) is an up and coming comic book writer and
artist who plies his trade by writing super offensive indie comics and it has
attracted the attention of an upcoming journalist (Giraud). With his latest
issue though, he has also attracts the attention of a questionable business man
Mr. Fong (Mazak.) It’s this businessman and his gangsters that cut off Travis’
hand as a warning for his comics and his offensive writing. Dismemberment has
never kept a bad hand dead though and it’s not long before it comes back…for
revenge.

Give him...the saw!

On the surface, Bloody
Knuckles is – essentially – a poor man’s combination of the silliness (and
melting faces) of Troma with the elements of story that most horror comedies
use that includes a romantic subplot, a man who loses his sight on where he
wants to go in life, and the various odd situations that arise from his quest.
However, it never quite grasps the blend of humor, horror, and character growth
that other horror comedies have mashed together this year. Occasionally it
works, there is a few fun bits with our “hero” and his best friend and there is
some decently funny material when his severed hand finally shows up, but it’s
not nearly as effectively funny as one would hope with its Evil Dead 2 meets Troma concept. Some of the gore is fun,
particularly the effects of a poison on people and some of the hand work with
the severed hand, but it’s rarely something that comes off as fresh or original
as it could have.

Oddly enough, the film isn’t nearly as offensive as it
seemed it was going to be. It starts off in some offensive manners as a
mentally handicapped person drinks some poison and then subsequently melts, but
it even goes as far as being too serious at times. Instead of spending so much
time laying out the various pros and cons of what ‘offensive’ humor is good and
bad for, they might have gone with just running with the idea. Our hero and his
journalist girl pal are about as basic as they get when it comes to likeably
protagonists and our lead’s offensive humor is rarely offensive to the audience
as much as it is towards other characters, and outside of some great secondary
characters like a vengeance driven S&M costumed man which turns up for some
great laughs in the second half, the film tends to downplay some of its more
outrageous elements. The villain is evil, but not nearly evil enough, and even
the henchmen could have been played up to insane levels if they wanted. Bloody Knuckles simply doesn’t play
those cards.

Burning fingers...

As far as horror comedies go, Bloody Knuckles isn’t nearly as bad or as good as it could have
been. It tends to play things a bit safe after the opening sequence with its
characters and plotting and doesn’t utilize the horror or the comedy to the
offensive ways it could have. It is still a fairly funny movie in its own right
and with the right expectations then viewers ought to find quite a bit of
enjoyment out of it. In a year of so many great horror comedies though, this
one feels like it’s a missed opportunity. It will find its cult fan base, but
beyond that Bloody Knuckles is just
mediocre.

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